


Run And Hide

by NimueOfTheNorth



Series: Coffee and Tea [4]
Category: Criminal Minds, James Bond (Craig movies)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-29
Updated: 2017-01-29
Packaged: 2018-09-20 14:08:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,974
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9494906
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NimueOfTheNorth/pseuds/NimueOfTheNorth
Summary: When Q sees Spencer on a screen at work his heart stops. And he's too far away to do anything to make it better.





	

Something was wrong.

That much was blatantly obvious the moment Q entered his domain on Monday morning. He let out a long suffering sigh. 

He’d had a perfectly fine and relaxing weekend off, rare as it was. The only damper on his mood had been the text he’d received from Spencer early Saturday morning, telling him that his lover was doing a consult out of town for another agency and would be difficult to reach. It had nixed his plans for some phone sex fun but it was neither the first nor would it be the last time their jobs got in the way of their relationship. He hadn’t let it get in the way of his good mood.

The tension all around was killing that mood rather quickly.

“Okay. Who wants to be the brave one to tell me who got themselves in which kind of trouble, likely by not following procedures, abusing equipment or just plain stupidity? Hm? Any volunteers?”

There was the usual exchange of you-do-it, no-it’s-your-turn looks between his minions until one of the mission technicians took a deep breath and spoke up. “I guess it’s 006’s fault but he isn’t the one in trouble. Well, at least not directly.”

“Go on.”

“He was on a mission in South America to retrieve information from a cartel. At their base, he came across a teenaged girl, locked up and traumatised, but he had reason to assume that she might prove a valuable witness so he brought her to a safe location in the US. Only… she wasn’t talking.”

“So far I fail to see why this causes everyone this much worry.”

“006 requested permission to bring in an expert to get through to her. And that... well that didn’t quite work out as planned.”

“When does anything 006 comes up with ever work as planned? He’s as bad as 007!” A ball of dread started to form in Q’s stomach and made him snappish. That his people didn’t want to play messenger for things they knew would arouse his ire was one thing. But this level of evasiveness was unusual and deeply worrisome.

“What they aren’t saying,” came Bond’s voice from the shadowy opening of a side corridor, “is that the expert in question is one Dr Spencer Reid.”

Q stared at Bond in sheer horror. He could taste his pulse in his throat. The world seemed to stop and speed up all in one moment.

Then everything snapped and he turned towards his main work station. “Give me the video feed - NOW!” he bellowed when he reached the table before the pictures. The screens flared to life and he dropped into a chair he wasn’t even sure was there. His heartbeat, that had been hammering like mad, just stopped.

What he saw was a standard, greyish, sparsely furnished interrogation room. The problem sat in the corner. There on the ground was Spencer, _his_ Spencer, sitting on the floor in a deceptively relaxed position. But Q knew his lover too well to fall for that. Spencer was tense. And why wouldn’t he.

In front of him was a young girl. Between the curtain of dark hair and the scarf that covered part of her face her age was hard to guess but something between thirteen and sixteen seemed a good guess. The girl was just as tense as Spencer but she made no attempt to hide it. She was crouched, ready to jump like a wild cat in defence mode.

But the only thing Q could really focus on was the knife. The sharp, shiny knife that the girl held right against his lover’s throat.

“Do we have audio?” His own voice sounded foreign to him.

“No, not anymore,” one of the techs admitted. “006 had to improvise on the location. It isn’t in good shape. The mic stopped working about twenty minutes ago, shortly after this,” he gestured at the screen, “happened. The girl hadn’t said a thing by then.”

Q forced himself to breath. “What did M think allowing this?!”

“He wasn’t aware, at least not of the details,” Bond explained. “He is currently preoccupied with another crisis, so 006 got away with just telling him that he knew of an expert in the US that MI6 had vetted with a high enough security clearance.”

Bond pulled up a second chair and settled in beside him. They both kept looking at the screen and the impasse. Spencer was talking, but whatever he was saying didn’t seem to make a difference so far.

“Why isn’t he pulling away? She’s the one with her back against the wall.”

“He tried right at the beginning, but her reflexes are awfully quick. He’s playing it safe.”

Q couldn’t turn his eyes from the screen. He was vaguely aware of Bond leaving and returning, a mug of tea being placed in front of him, going cold with too few sips and being replaced by a fresh one.

Everything that mattered was on that screen. Sure, he loved his job, he was loyal to Queen and country, he cared about the men and women in the field, relying on his gadgets and hacking, about the civilians they were all protecting. But the one person that his whole being revolved around was there on the screen, in a faceless room, roughly 5000 miles and a whole ocean away. 

And these pictures from a wobbly surveillance system were all the connection he had to him. He couldn’t look away.

“Moneypenny is securing flight reservations.” The non-sequitur from Bond startled him.

“What?”

“She’ll have us on the first flight heading to the US the moment this clusterfuck is resolved. You may think me stupid at times but I’m not stupid enough to try and pull you away right now, cutting you off from what little information you have.”

That actually pulled a weak half-smile from Q. “Thank you. But why _we_?”

“I figure my special set of talents might come in handy. They are always at your service.”

“And which talents would that be?”

“Oh, I don’t know. I could hold Trevelyan down so you could impress on him how much you don’t appreciate his decision making process. Or I could shoot at his heels to ensure he runs sufficiently fast away from you. I also know a trick or three about the disposal of bodies, should you so desire.”

“You’re impossible. But thanks. And lets hope things don’t progress in a manner that would put me in need of body disposal.” Because that would be very dark circumstances indeed.

Time became meaningless, seeing as nothing changed. Q only focused on the screen and the picture never changed. The position of the two people never changed. The girl had the hand with the knife rested on Spencer’s shoulder and the edge right where it could do the most harm. Spencer kept talking, whatever he said, whether she understood him or not. All stayed in limbo. Including his own heart.

From one moment to the next, almost as if he’d blinked when he knew he hadn’t, it was over.

The knife fell to the ground and was pushed away. The girl crumbled in on herself and Spencer gathered her in his arms. The door to the room opened and 006 came inside.

It was over.

Spencer was safe.

Q could breath again and didn’t understand why he felt so choked up until he tasted the tears on his lips.

A strong hand squeezed his neck and he finally, finally let his eyes drop away from the screen.

“Come on, boffin. We have a flight to catch.” Bond reached for two bags, one of which looked like Q’s but he couldn’t even worry how that had ended up at MI6. He let himself be lead, still feeling numb and a little disorientated.

Bond drove them to the airport and Q didn’t raise a token protest against his speed. He just pulled out his mobile and dialled his favourite number. He just hoped he’d pick up, he needed to hear his voice.

_“Hi, Love. There’s no point in telling you I’ve had an uneventful Sunday, is there?”_

“No, don’t even try. Damn, it’s so good to hear your voice! Are you alright?”

_“Yeah. Mostly parched and tired, but otherwise perfectly fine, I promise. She’s a victim in all this, she never meant me harm. She’s completely exhausted herself for now, but I think I’ll have a real chance to get through to her later and then we’ll hopefully get all the necessary information, both for MI6 and to help her.”_

“That sounds good. But I want you to get some sleep as well. And plenty of water, not just your dreadful coffee and eat something, Spencer, promise me you’ll eat a decent meal.”

_“Yes, you worrywart, I’ll eat something and drink water and try my best to sleep. I promise, okay? Calm down.”_

“I can’t. Not until I see you with my own eyes in a couple of hours.”

_“What do you mean?”_

“We’re flying over. Bond is just parking at Heathrow.”

_“You don’t have to-”_

“Yes, actually, I do. I need to see you, Spencer, so please don’t argue.”

_“I won’t. See you in a few hours then. Love you.”_

“Love you, too.”

\----

The moment the two were in the same room, Q pulled Spencer into his arms and buried his face in the crook of his neck. “Thank God, you’re safe. I’m so sorry you got dragged into this.”

Spencer looped his own arms around Finlay in response, hugging him back. “Fin, that might not be the best thing to say, but you are aware that I’ve had much worse encounters in the line of my work. I wouldn’t call this fun but it’s really not that big of a deal.”

“But it’s the first time you ended up in danger like this because of your connection with me. So at least let me apologise. And I’ll be taking care of you, whether you want to or not, no argument.”

“Okay, okay,” Spencer chuckled. “You know you can always take care of me all you want.”

“And I will, in a moment.” He turned in Spencer’s arms.” Right after I’ve told our dear Alec just what I think about his selection method for experts. And how pleased I am with his security measures concerning said expert. Which is to say ‘not much’ on the first and ‘not at all’ on the second account. So, double-O-six, I won’t even ask for your excuses because there isn’t a single one I will allow.

“To make it short and simple. I want you gone. I want you far away from me and especially from Spencer. I don’t want to hear or see you until I feel considerably better about the fact that you endangered the love of my life, aged me by three years the least and made me waste half a dozen cups of perfectly good tea!”

“In other words, he wants you far away from him for quite some time,” Spencer added sickeningly sweet.

When 006 started to protest, Bond cut him off. “If you know what’s good for you, you’ll just admit defeat and leave, Alec. I might even ask M to give you missions that don’t rely on Q-branch, otherwise, a long unofficial vacation might be best for your health and continued existence.”

Trevelyan looked at them for a moment before he bowed his head slightly. “Thank you for your help, Dr Reid. I apologise for the inconveniences.” Then he left. And nobody in the room really cared about his destination at that moment.

Spencer leaned into Fin’s ear and whispered, “I guess he won’t need any additional run and hide practise in the foreseeable future.”

In lieu of an answer Fin gave a Spencer a searing kiss.


End file.
